updated 12-8-99

WTO

(WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION)

SEATTLE PROTEST

.

IT IS NOW ILLEGAL TO POSSESS, OWN, SELL, OR CONVEY
A GAS MASK IN THE CITY LIMITS OF SEATTLE!!!!

SPECIAL WTO COVERAGE FROM SEATTLE

LISTEN TO LIVE POLICE SCANNER FROM SEATTLE
SEE LIVE WEB CAM IN SEATTLE - DOWNTOWN
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Embattled police chief resigns

Tuesday, December 7, 1999

By KIMBERLY A.C. WILSON

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

http://www.seattle-pi.com/local/cops071.shtml

©1999 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Stamper sent a letter yesterday to Mayor Paul Schell announcing his decision to step down as head of the city's 1,800-member force at the end of March, ending his six-year tenure as chief. Schell accepted the resignation.

The move, Stamper said, is designed to "depoliticize" the chief's job as the City Council, American Civil Liberties Union and others prepare to investigate the department's actions during the WTO meeting.

"I think in making this announcement, I've taken my tenure off the table. I will be leaving the Seattle Police Department," he said in an exclusive interview with the Post-Intelligencer.

He said he will stay through March so that he can help investigators sort out how and why police lost control of the demonstrations and can speak freely in doing so.

"I think it's poor form to just walk away, especially at a time when we're involved in some intensive review of last week's experience," he said.

Stamper said he had made up his mind last month that he would announce his retirement in January. But the events of last week changed his timetable.

"The irony is that I'll be leaving (the chief's job) two months later than I expected to," he said during the 90-minute interview.

In accepting the chief's resignation, Schell called Stamper an effective but unpopular leader who was misunderstood by rank-and-file officers.

"I think he's been a great chief and I tried to talk him out of it. . . . He's a man of absolute integrity," Schell said last night. "Anybody who is a change agent faces the challenge of being effective but not necessarily popular. That comes at a price. But history (will) judge him with a kind eye."

Stamper's decision caps a scandal-filled year that began with allegations that a Seattle homicide detective stole $10,000 from a crime scene and culminated last week as outnumbered police officers fired tear gas, pepper spray and rubber pellets at WTO demonstrators in downtown streets.

Seattle police and law enforcement officials outside the department -- including King County Sheriff Dave Reichert -- complained bitterly that Stamper and Schell were not prepared to handle the thousands of protesters who descended on the city for the WTO meeting.

As a result, WTO delegates were placed at risk, the meeting was disrupted, violence spilled out of downtown into the residential Capitol Hill neighborhood, downtown businesses sustained more than $2 million in damage and the city's retail core lost millions more dollars from lost sales at the height of the Christmas shopping season.

On Wednesday night, police officers yanked Seattle City Councilman Richard McIver from his car as he tried to drive into a restricted area.

McIver, who is black, said the officers ignored his business card, and he said the incident highlights problems in how the department deals with people of color.

Moreover, police officers complained loudly and publicly that the failure to anticipate violence left their ranks so thin that they could not do their jobs. Many said they were dangerously tired while on the front lines for nearly 20 hours without food, backup support or enough tear gas and pepper spray.

"I certainly do accept full responsibility that our officers did not get all the support they needed and deserve," Stamper said. "As the chief, it's fundamentally important for people to understand that we knew this was going to be big. We knew that there was a potential for violence and destructive behavior."

Stamper acknowledged for the first time yesterday that the mayhem on Seattle's streets Tuesday nearly caused President Clinton to cancel his trip to the city to speak to WTO delegates.

"We all had a very serious conversation about whether all the venues the president would visit were secure," Stamper said.

Stamper, visibly relaxed and confident during the interview, denied that politics had played a role in tactical decisions for handling the protests.

But he acknowledged that the department -- and the city -- had tried to negotiate with the protesters rather than confront them.

He said Assistant Chief Ed Joiner directed the tactical response to demonstrators practicing civil disobedience while negotiating behind the scenes with protest group leaders.

"Some of the leaders of the various demonstration factions were not able to deliver," Stamper said. "In other words, they were dealing with the wild card of demonstrators who are not part of their particular group, and who are not playing by the rules."

Stamper said police faced squirt guns filled with urine, chunks of concrete and soda pop cans filled with gasoline.

"The anarchists used techniques downtown that they were trained for," Stamper said. "They integrated themselves into peaceful demonstrators. They made it very clear to us that if we were going to get to them, we were going to have to come through people who were not destructive and violent.

"One protest leader reported to us that he saw anarchists change clothes three times a day to avoid detection."

Stamper said the Seattle Police Department -- and police officers called in from King County and elsewhere -- were trained and prepared to handle unruly and even violent protests. But they just did not have the numbers to cope with tens of thousands of demonstrators.

Cities like New York, with nearly 40,000 officers, and Chicago, with 15,000 officers, "can pour two to three to four times the number of officers that we can into those venues for dignitary protection," he said.

Seattle could not match those forces. "Even with mutual aid, looking at the entire state of Washington, we're asking other law enforcement agencies to literally strip their streets."

The National Guard eventually sent in 300 unarmed troops and the Washington State Patrol sent another 300 armed troopers after the violence broke out Tuesday. But they did not arrive until Wednesday morning.

Schell said he was disappointed that Stamper was leaving under a cloud. The chief, he said, had hoped to walk away from the job after guiding the city successfully through the WTO and the arrival of the year 2000.

"But it's his life," Schell said. "And it's not going to be fun for the next six months."

Stamper said he was under no pressure from the mayor to announce his retirement earlier. He said he informed Deputy Mayor Maud Daudon of his intentions Saturday. She arranged a meeting Sunday with Schell.

"I said this is categorical, it's unequivocal," Stamper said. "Does this look like the face of somebody who's indecisive about his decision?

"I think I have a responsibility to stick around and answer questions about WTO. It's no secret that there are officers who believe that they didn't get as much support for this as they needed and deserved, and I want to hear any and all concerns and answer every question that I can. "But I also want to be a part of systematically critiquing and debriefing the WTO experience."

In Vancouver, B.C., where police employed similar means to curtail looting and violence during protests against the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum held there in 1997, public hearings into whether the police responded appropriately are still going on.

Second-guessing takes time, said Vancouver Police Department Inspector Ken Doern, a specialist in crowd control.

Outside of WTO, Stamper said he hopes his legacy will be his advocacy of community policing, a concept some officers resisted and some community members have misunderstood.

"Community policing is not a touchy-feely police strategy," the chief said yesterday with a tinge of frustration. "That kind of a term attached to policing or my leadership position is kind of evidence of lazy journalism.

"Community policing is very tough to pull off. . . . And when it works, it sets the stage for the next phase of community policing, which is a deeper and deeper commitment" to working closely with the community.

In Schell's three-paragraph letter accepting the chief's resignation, the mayor credited Stamper's community policing formula for plummeting crime rates. And he praised the chief's unwavering focus on improving the department's record of civil rights.

"Under your leadership, our police department and its citizen partners have accomplished a great deal," Schell said. "Crime is down. Ours is the best domestic violence response police force in the country. Citizen complaints are down by two-thirds in your six years.

"You stood firm against racism, sexism, and homophobia. Human rights are stronger in our department and across our community because of you."

Since he arrived in Seattle in February 1994 after having been executive assistant police chief for San Diego, Stamper has taken an active and visible role in Seattle's diverse neighborhoods.

He was a regular marcher in the annual Gay Pride Parade. He also met regularly with representatives of the city's minority communities and invited controversy by speaking frankly about his own experience as a rookie cop who witnessed and participated in police abuse of civil rights.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

P-I reporter Kimberly A.C. Wilson can be reached at 206-615-1246 or kacwilson@seattle-pi.com

P-I reporter Mike Barber contributed to this report.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

12-7-99

From: GENESISOFLIGHT@webtv.net (lee Chin)

It was just announced that Seattle's Chief of Police has resigned because of the criticisms of his actions during the WTO. His resignation was accepted by the Mayor. >lee>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

12.6.99

'Roger and Me' producer on the importance Seattle protests

Here's some excellent commentary from film producer Michael Moore, on the historic importance of the demonstrations against the World Trade Organization conclave/debacle in Seattle last week; and how those massive protests helped torpedo the elitist, globalist WTO and their pernicious, anti human sovereignty AND anti national sovereignty agendas in a big way.

Moore was a first-hand witness during the street demonstrations.  

Do yourself a favor and check out this well-put article below.

NewsHawk® Inc.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: The Battle of Seattle
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 10:10:02 -0500
From: "Ronald T. Hannivig" <RonHannivig@compuserve.com>

All,

The following is from the uniquely accredited maverick journalist, Michael Moore - of "Roger and Me"; "TVNation"; "Canadian Bacon", et al well known credits, overall take on the Seattle demonstrations.  
---------- Forwarded Message ----------

From: "Michael Moore's newsletter"
TO: (unknown), INTERNET:MICHAELMOORE@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
DATE: 12/7/99 1:39 AM

RE: The Battle of Seattle

Dear Friends,

They never knew what hit them. They had assumed it would be business as usual, the way it had been for decades. Rich men gather, meet, decide the fate of the world, then return home to amass more wealth. It's the way it's always been.

Until Seattle.

On the morning of November 30, 1999, as government officials from 135 nations attempted to meet with the largest gathering ever of corporate executives, tens of thousands of average everyday working Americans shut down the city of Seattle and physically prohibited the hoped-for historic and official merger of the earth's political and business elite. I was there. I saw it first-hand. It was a sight I had never seen.

But there it was. It was a massively representive body of Americans (and Canadians and Brits and French, etc.), all of us standing there on the streets between Pine and Pike -- Teamsters and turtle-lovers, grandparents and Gap clerks, the homeless and computer geeks, high school students and Alaskans, nuns and Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., airplane mechanics and caffeinated slaves from Microsoft. A few were professional protesters, but the majority looked as if this was their first exercise in a constitutionally protected redress of grievances. There were no "leaders," no "movement," no idea of what to do except stop the World Trade Organization from holding its secret meeting.

Only the anarchists seemed organized. They even had their own anarchist marching band!

The big labor march grew so large (that's what happens when so many workers are temps), it broke into six or seven separate marches, choking off the entire downtown area of Seattle.

The beauty of all this is that it just happened. And why should anyone be surprised? After two decades of downsizing, wage stagnation, lost health benefits and the deliberate destruction of the middle class, the bubble sooner or later had to burst.

The Fortune 500 brought this on themselves. If they hadn't been so greedy, if they had been willing to share even a sliver of the pie, then maybe Seattle wouldn't have happened.

But the rich decided to take a piss on their biggest supporters -- their loyal workers, those Reagan Democrats -- and there's nothing uglier than a Teamster who voted for Nixon realizing he's been had.

It was funny watching how the media presented the Battle of Seattle ("violent protests" was the mantra), and while a McDonald's and a Starbucks had their windows broken, the truth was that 99% of the participants destroyed no property and took great pains to treat the city of Seattle with endearing respect. Seattle is, after all, the only city in the history of this country to have a general strike (the entire town refused to show up for work back in 1919).

The liberal mayor of Seattle, who at first did not want to be known as a West Coast Mayor Daley, eventually lost his cool and let his police force run amok. Tear gas and rubber bullets started flying toward the grandparents and the nuns. All civil liberties were suspended. They even had the audacity to use the term, "no protest zones."

Hey, this is America, buddy! Seattle may be considered one of those groovy "Pacific Rim" cities, but that doesn't make it Singapore.

Clinton came to town on the second day. He was so badgered by the protests, he ended up committing a sin so serious, it was like he was burning his draft card all over again. He completely changed his position and called on all WTO countries to enact laws prohibiting trade with nations that use children in sweatshops and do not honor the rights of all workers to organize a union. Whoa! You see, free trade is an absolute with the WTO (e.g., trade must never be used as a tool to accomplish "social" goals). So, for Clinton to climb the space needle (or was he chased up it?) and then declare that the human rights of workers were more important than making a buck, well, this was nothing short of Paul being knocked off his horse and seeing Jesus! You could almost hear the collective seething of the hundreds of CEOs gathered in Seattle. Their boy Bill -- the politician they had bought and paid for at so many coffee klatches and Lincoln Bedroom stays --- had betrayed them. You could almost see them reaching for their Palm Pilots to look up the phone number of The Jackal.

It was a tremendous victory for everyone who lives from paycheck to paycheck. We owe a lot to those brave souls who got arrested and spent the rest of the week in jail.

This is by no means the end of Big Business. The richest 1% still own 90% of everything in this world. They will not go down without a fight.

But they have been put on notice that people from all walks of life have had their fill and will not let up until we have a fair, just, and democratic economy. This week, Seattle was the Lexington and Concord of a movement that now cannot be stopped. Mark it down, this last great, important date of the 20th century -- November 30, 1999 -- The Battle of Seattle, the day the people got tired of having to work a second job while fighting off the collection agents and decided it was time the pie was shared with the people who baked it.

Yours, Michael Moore

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

12.6.99

Fwd: Seattle's Sanitized Newsmedia

From Citizens For a Constitutional Washington

-------- Original Message --------

Subject: Seattle's Sanitized Newsmedia
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 10:51:31 -0800
From: "CCW" <ccw@wolfenet.com>

Speaking from a 22-year background in radio & television broadcast, including stints as news director for several radio stations in the Pacific Northwest, I can with mature circumspection tell you that there was only ONE broadcast outlet in Seattle who was even close to the real happenings, and that was KIRO TV-7 in Seattle, a Cox Interactive Media station and long-time CBS affiliate - although I have nothing nice to say about CBS or Dan Rather-Biased. The rest of the newsmedia, including Fisher Broadcasting Company's KOMO TV-4 (ABC) and A. H. Belo Corporation's KING TV-5 (NBC) played the "fluff" tunes and coddled their viewers with more or less positive "spins" on WTO and negative on the protestors. KOMO TV-4's News Director, Joe Barnes, even went so far as to do an editorial that KOMO wouldn't be covering the protestor's actions or anything that basically wouldn't be considered "politically correct". KOMO didn't have much of anything, insofar as news reporting is concerned and the five "W's" ... WHO, WHAT, WHY, WHEN and WHERE, and how. They tended to be PRO-Mayor Paul Schell and PRO-Police Chief Norm Stamper, playing the dialectic cards and making it appear that the protestor's were all wrong and the police were right. One has to wonder what kind of political intrigue and money exists between the hierarchy of some of these stations and certain other key officials to get favored reporting. So much for a "free press". Both KOMO and KING made it appear that the downtown corridor of businesses were literally destroyed and boarded-up, and that was just not the case. The damage was not widespread.

KIRO, on the otherhand, tended to give "hard" news and last night's newscast at 11PM was perhaps the most superb reporting I have seen to date. If anyone wants to really see what went on during the "Battle in Seattle", KIRO's video coverage was par-excellence. And the still pictures most of your readership have now seen on the internet of the Ninja Stormtrooper kicking the young man in the groin and then shooting him at point-blank-range with rubber bullets was on last night's KIRO TV-7 Newscast. Here are a couple of links from their website for further info:

http://www.seattleinsider.com/news/1999/12/06/wtoresidents.html

http://www.seattleinsider.com/news/1999/12/05/wtoprobe.html

By the way, I've never worked for KIRO and this is totally legit with no biases other than what I personally observed throughout the week of the illegal WTO. Also, Mayor Schell and Police Chief Stamper have GOT TO GO, i.e., "RESIGN NOW!" Under Schell's tutelage, the City of Seattle ordered 500 sets of body armor and it was a RUSH order that had to be shipped no later than October. The black body armor came from Second Chance Body Armor, Central Lake, Michigan. So, for the Mayor and Police Chief to claim that they were "overwhelmed" is nonsense. They had PLANNED their little black Ninja stormtrooper party months ago! And who knows but what there were many agent provocateurs engaged in creating some of the mayhem in order to condition the people for what next happened on day 2 of the WTO - a MASSIVE show of force by police and MASSIVE POLICE BRUTALITY.

/s/ John R. Prukop, Legal Researcher

"Reason obeys itself; and ignorance does whatever is dictated to it."

--Thomas Paine, Rights of Man ("Conclusion")

"All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void."

--Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (2 Cranch) 137 (1803)

CCW Coalition
Concerned Citizens Of Washington
Citizens For A Constitutional Washington
John R. Prukop, Executive Director
11910-C Meridian Ave. E., #142
Puyallup, Washington 98373
TEL: (253) 840-8071
FAX: (253) 840-8074
e-mail: ccw@wolfenet.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Protesters packed up their rain-soaked tarps and gear after all arrestees were released.

What went wrong at WTO?

Reported by Arturo Santiago

SEATTLE, December 6, 99 – The WTO conference is over and Monday, Seattle’s mayor – the man who so eagerly hoped the talks would bring good attention to his city – may have to answer to the City Council about what went wrong. At the same time, protesters wrap up their vigil outside the King County jail.

PROTESTERS PACKED UP their rain-soaked belongings after several days of camping out in front of the King County jail, where they had been demanding the release of fellow demonstrators.

“We made an agreement that we would leave if all the misdemeanor prisoners were released, which they were – the last person just came out,” said Mark Taylor-Canfield, protestors’ spokesman.

Their original focus on the World Trade Organization has now been mixed with allegations against police. Arrestees complained of brutality, bogus charges and a lack of respect for their rights.

“It was wrong. Our constitutional rights were completely stepped on,” said one of the protesters.

“We did not engage in any violent activity and yet we had consistent violence committed against us and consistently our rights denied,” said protester Clare Buddinger.

“Obviously Chief Stamper needs to seriously consider whether or not he’s doing us a service by staying in our city,” said Judy Nicastro, City Councilmember Elect.

Across town on Capitol Hill, City Council members joined a neighborhood vigil with the focus on healing after the storm. Just days ago, police and National Guard in riot gear were occupying their streets, accused of making residents very uncomfortable.

While most police officers followed orders, some got carried away.

“Obviously we’ve all seen the infamous picture of the kid on the sidewalk, hands up, completely helpless, getting kicked in the groin. Unacceptable. That police officer needs to be found out who he is – who that renegade officer is – and he’s got to go,” said Nicastro.

Most still stressed their feeling that 90 percent of Seattle’s officers are decent people, taking orders. As for the others, City Council member Richard Conlin promised to seek accountability.

“We need to find out who’s responsible for the things people need to be held accountable for and prepare for the future,” aid Richard Conlin.

The group that attended a vigil last night on Seattle’s Capitol Hill have formed “Seattle Citizens Against Police Violence.” It plans a meeting Monday night to look into the police response last week to WTO protests.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap19991206_1744.html

WIRE:12/06/1999 22:49:00 ET

Fallout begins over handling of WTO protests in Seattle

SEATTLE (AP) _ City residents and officials on Monday demanded accountability for the mayhem last week from the World Trade Organization protests that cost merchants nearly $20 million and left many furious at police.

"If you don't have a police force that can handle an emergency situation rationally, then you have a serious problem," said City Councilwoman-elect Judy Nicastro, who was tear-gassed along with demonstrators and residents of the Capitol Hill neighborhood at the height of a police crackdown last Wednesday.

On Monday, the City Council agreed to wait until next week to formally create a task force to determine what went wrong, though it appointed three members to the panel.

Seattle was still recovering Monday from WTO protests that included widespread vandalism and looting by a few dozen people among the tens of thousands that crowded downtown streets.

The violence resulted in deployment of the National Guard, a curfew and more than 500 arrests.

Downtown stores suffered as much as $2.5 million in property damage and lost some $17 million in sales, said Lucinda Payne of the Downtown Seattle Association.

No deaths or serious injuries were reported, but protesters have alleged mistreatment at the hands of police officers and jailers.

Police Chief Norm Stamper has said his officers used appropriate force to clear streets and maintain order.

City Councilman Richard McIver, who is black, said he was pulled from his car by police on his way to a WTO reception and had his arms put behind his back before being ordered to leave the area. He said that occurred even after he had identified himself and given officers his gold-crested council business card.

The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People demanded an investigation of police conduct.

Stamper should resign, said Nicastro, who does not join the council until January.

Meanwhile, all but nine protesters had been released from the King County Jail in Seattle Monday. More than 500 others were released on personal recognizance over the weekend.

Copyright 1999 ABC News

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Subject: Seattle Art Bell Chat Club - WTO review meeting

December 6, 1999

Hi Y'all!

Question: What do you call an emergency state that has the National Guard called out?

Answer: Martial Law

Yup, I was informed that technically that was what it was in latté land last week.

Video, photos and first hand accounts of the WTO.

Warning: You may experience a sudden urge to buy a gas mask after reading this. No kidding.

Reports were heard at the Club's meeting at Capitol Hill's Seattle Metaphysical Library overseen by Director Philip Lipson:

Tari - a Capitol Hill resident described how The Habitat Cafe on Broadway was gassed. She and a friend who were out having lunch found themselves in the middle of a confrontation and ducted in the cafe to avoid the riot police. She thought the police would respect a business. She was wrong. Her friend witnessed as a police looked straight at her and threw a canister at the opening of the door. It filled the entire cafe with gas and it reminded her of a Nazi gas chamber. People in there having lunch were throwing up including a family and their kid. Their options with the police at the front door it seemed were to stay inside with the gas or go outside and get gassed and beaten. They chose to stay inside with the burning gas. Later people came out with their hands up and asking if they could leave and received snide remarks from the police.

Can anyone say lawsuits? They are.

What did the gas feel like? She said like bathing in ammonia and having a firecracker in your mouth.

Margaret described the WTO workshops she attended, the intense lectures presented by some of the most prestigeous researchers and nations on everything from biotechnology to patents. That was what the this whole week was supposed to be about - international awareness and negotiations - serious meetings. She said she saw and met international people in everything from suit and tie to dredlocks - it was a very unifying event. There was even a description of a baby reaching out to play with a man's huge afro.

Margaret then dropped a bomb on us and played her video tape of the start of the police gassing. Truly it is probably one of only a handful of videos of what went on at the start because we saw KIRO's media van close their doors (probably ordered to).

The video showed a crowd was milling around and then the tone changed when police starting suiting up. (guess they were too busy changing to apprehend any anarchists and vandels). We heard the beat of the protest drumming increase - perhaps a communication signal to the other protestors. We then saw metal compression rods - riot sticks that force an impact like a forced slug into its victim were used repeatedly on the front line of sitting non-violent protestors. Yeh, I said sitting.

The video even showed one police use up his compression canister on one protestor and stop to recharge. The sitting protestors had their heads down trying to cover their faces with their backs to the police totally standing their ground and the crowd was shouting "Shame" to the police. It was hard to watch because these protestors took alot of abuse. I suddenly thought of what they would have done to Ghandi. Spray was being used directly into their faces and people were throwing water on the sitting protestors to help them wash the spray off.

A gentleman made a comment on camera how police were spraying inside peoples masks and holding the mask down. Masks were used apparently in conjunction with the street theater protest and street puppets. The video showed the burned faces - some red raw or white with residue.

It was disgusting to see officials in the backgound watching this.

Unlike what the media portrayed or what officials said the gassing and beating weren't a result of vandles or anarchists of which they did nothing to apprehend. They were a lame justification for the police to use their sprays and artillery on the non-violent protestors and stomp our constitutional right to assemble and to protest. When the mayor outlawed the possession and selling of gas masks I thought you have got to be kidding. Our constitutional right is to bear arms but no gas masks which are not weapons but protection gear.

I don't think so.

Margaret had made sandwiches for the protestors sit-in waiting for their friends to be released. She said many businesses and people had brought down food. She also related how she saw a group of plain clothes people huddled and was asked to leave when she approached them as they said " By order of the police" - they were undercover cops.

This video and stills should be available on John's web-site shortly, address listed below. No doubt the AFLCIO will be receiving a copy to document charges and identify police. The Seattle Metaphyscial Library is also requesting a copy so you can see for yourself.

Mike who was with us at the Daisy Gathering recounted what went on at the Human Chain around the Kingdome with police that Monday, Tuesday's AFLCIO Peoples March and the standoff on Capitol Hill. Mike related how some guy was shot 17 times with rubber bullets because he was holding a flag and wouldn't move. (Talk about taking a bullet for your country) Mike also related what he saw at Capitol Hill.

The chants :

"Who's streets? - Our streets!"

"You go home - We'll go home!"

We asked Mike who grew up in Seattle what his opinion of the Seattle Police was now and he said quite frankly "It's always been bad".

Interestingly Mike mentioned Hopi prophecy and how he saw the North American Treaty Council there at the junction of 4th and 5th St. Prophecy - the transition from the 4th level to the 5th. and where the steel will meet with the clay.

No matter how you look at it - something was born that day with the joining of groups and people holding hands and locking arms. Also brought to the meeting were rubber bullets, pellets and wooden plugs. It is hard to think these were shot point blank at people, as seen on TV. Seems to me there is no honor in shooting people unarmed.

Yeh, we saw cell phones. KOMO news also informed me they did have reporters planted in the crowd. Reason - don't know. (odd as their statement the previous week was "We don't see a need to cover the WTO - Art Bell is giving that enough coverage")

Thanks to John Novak who has been following the WTO issues months ago and has an excellent website listed below.

Reporting live Charlette LeFevre

Seattle Art Bell Chat Club

----- Original Message -----

From: <Gj3447@aol.com>
To: <deuce42@uswest.net>
Sent: Sunday, December 05, 1999 6:47 PM
Subject: Re: Undercover Police at the WTO march on Tuesday (fwd)

In a message dated 12/04/1999 10:48:27 PM Pacific Standard Time,

deuce42@uswest.net writes:

<< I am trying to confirm if this is indeed your words and would like to ask your permission to post it on the website I have dedicated to this past week here in Seattle.

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Keep/4885/wto/index.html >>

Yes this is the message I posted at the MC List. We (my friend and I) are currently putting together at least 1/2 hour show for cable access in Portland. Any questions please e-mail. You can post it.

Greg Judkins

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

12-6-99

Clinton linked to collapse of talks in Seattle

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Charles Clover

LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SEATTLE

European sources yesterday said President Clinton instructed his negotiators to let world trade talks in Seattle collapse over the weekend, infuriating participants from Britain and other European Union countries.

The discussions among 135 countries foundered because Mr. Clinton decided the likely result would not have been favorable for the United States or have won support from the labor unions who are backing Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign, said these EU sources.

Facilities were booked for the talks to run until 7 a.m. Saturday and the delegations were prepared for an all-night session.

But the Daily Telegraph has learned that Mr. Clinton spoke to U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, the chairman of the conference, around 8 p.m. on Friday and decided to pull the plug on the talks.

While not commenting directly on the EU charges, White House chief economic adviser Gene Sperling boasted to reporters the United States had refused to give up its demand that the WTO address labor standards and that U.S. anti-dumping laws not be discussed -- both issues of concern to American unions.

"The decision was made that a better round could be launched by taking time out at this point and reconvening after [participating] countries and the WTO as an institution have a period to reflect on the best way to go forward," Mr. Sperling said.

Mr. Sperling also said, "We kept the president constantly up to date on the ups and downs in the [bargaining] process."

Mrs. Barshefsky, at her conference-ending news briefing, said the Americans had decided that many complicated issues "could not be overcome rapidly" and that "it would be best to take a time out."

Mr. Clinton's decision to let the talks collapse is believed to be linked to his surprise decision last week to call for core labor and environmental standards, backed by trade sanctions, to be inserted into the WTO rules.

The issues are important to labor unions and environmentalists, key parts of the constituency Mr. Gore will need for his election drive next year.

Many delegations from the EU and developing countries expressed anger at what they saw as Mr. Clinton's trying to use the talks as a grandstand for scoring domestic political points.

But it was at least a temporary victory for the estimated 16,000 union members who marched through the streets last week demanding that environmental protection and workers' standards be part of trade deals.

John Sweeney, president of the 13 million-member AFL-CIO, said yesterday the collapse of the Seattle talks was a step forward in the sense that "no deal is better than a bad deal."

"We all support trade, and we all recognize globalization. But it's about time that the WTO took into consideration worker rights," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Rep. Sander M. Levin, Michigan Democrat, also said trade had become a political issue for the 2000 elections. "The debate over the role of labor and environment in trade negotiations is inevitable and it is going to be part of the campaigns," he said.

The frustration of the Europeans was openly expressed Saturday by EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy of France, who had warned all week that the WTO's organizational flaws could doom the talks.

"The WTO really needs reform," he said after the breakdown.

Mrs. Barshefsky said the discussions would now move to the WTO headquarters in Geneva where talks next month would focus on two areas, agriculture and services, under an agenda set five years ago.

In the meantime WTO Director-General Mike Moore will consult the members to try to bridge their differences with the goal of reconvening the meeting of ministers at an unspecified date.

But Mr. Lamy said no one should be under an illusion it will be easy to change a process to conduct global trade negotiations that has been in use for 50 years.

The U.S. labor movement's success is expected to strengthen its hand in next year's battle in Congress over whether to give permanent trading status to China, a key requirement before China can join the WTO.

Mr. Sweeney said yesterday the labor movement would fight against normalizing trade relations with China "until there are some rules that the Chinese are going to play by."

"That was our argument with the WTO. Make the rules before you admit China," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

The Europeans, for their part, can be expected to begin acting independently to open up trade and to push for WTO reform.

British Trade Secretary Stephen Byers is expected to announce announce in the House of Commons today that the EU intends to proceed unilaterally to drop "essentially all" tariffs on imports from the world's poorest 48 countries, including Eritrea and Zimbabwe.

He will also announce that Britain wants to convene a ministerial meeting of critics of the WTO to discuss how it makes decisions, and to set up a forum of commonwealth trade ministers to discuss reforms.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WIRE:12/06/1999 05:23:00 ET

http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap19991206_454.html

Protesters released, residents come to grips with WTO-related violence

SEATTLE (AP) _ Joe Martinez, a self-described materialist who had barely heard of the World Trade Organization until last week, found himself joining its opponents in a vigil outside the King County Jail.

"My whole life I've been about money and myself and my $800 stereo," he said Sunday as his Chevy Malibu blasted hip-hop to entertain protesters angry at their colleagues' detention.

"I came down because I saw people getting beaten up and tear gassed on TV," the 20-year-old mechanic said. Martinez said he was converted to the protesters' cause once he heard their concerns over the impact of free trade on the environment and human and labor rights.

Those arrested continued to trickle out of jail Sunday. No more than 50 people of the more than 500 arrested last week were still awaiting release.

Meanwhile, a candlelight vigil was held in the Capitol Hill neighborhood where citizens had been gassed along with demonstrators during a police crackdown following window smashing and looting downtown on Tuesday.

Activists Sunday were declaring victory over the WTO. Delegates had failed to reach agreement on an agenda for new round of global trade talks _ exactly the outcome "No New Round" demonstrators demanded.

"This victory has wildly surpassed all our expectations," said Jeremy Simer, 25, of People for Fair Trade, a local group formed to help coordinate WTO opposition.

"It wasn't just the people in Seattle," he said. "People all over the world recognized the opportunity to focus everyone's energy on stopping one of a handful of international organizations that's chipping away at our democratic institutions."

A number of activist groups have alleged mistreatment at the hands of arresting and jail officers. Direct Action Network, an umbrella group for activists, said all of those arrested would seek full jury trials.

City officials did not immediately return a call for comment.

Assistant Police Chief Ed Joiner defended the midweek crackdown and denied that officers overall were too aggressive in their tactics.

"If you're asking for perfection from a law enforcement officer, then you're not talking about a human being," he said, noting that there were more than 1,000 officers on the street, and any who did "cross the line" would be investigated.

Acknowledging that the department had not expected the scale or ferocity of protests Tuesday and initially had too few officers in the field, Joiner said, "I think the Police Department did an absolutely fantastic job under the most difficult of circumstances."

Shoppers returned in force over the weekend to a downtown that had been mostly boarded up and blocked by police a week ago. Just as in the previous week, they saw police blocking intersections Sunday while hundreds of people ran through the streets in stocking caps.

This time, though, it was for the city's "Jingle Bell Run."

Copyright 1999 ABC

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

12.4.99

MD Testifies Re: SEVERE, Widespread Seattle Police Brutality

Here's what a medical doctor has to say about his first-hand experiences with victims of the the horrific and vicious brutality enacted by police and other law enforcement personnel against defenseless, peaceful protesters in Seattle this past week.

Severe and permanent injuries are said to have been sustained by a great number of victims; facts which went totally unreported by the dog-on-a-leash mass media outlets. Everyone from innocent children to helpless grandmothers reportedly bore the brunt of unbridled and unrestrained official, state-directed terrorism and thuggery--called forth to protect the ultra-wealthy, powerful globalist world trade authorities meeting in Seattle.

NewsHawk® Inc.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Subject: Seattle MD testifies Re: Police Brutality
Date: Sat, 04 Dec 1999 16:17:01 -0700
From: "Dr. Byron Weeks" <btw777@if.rmci.net>

Organization: Eschaton

Interview with Seattle MD

My name is Richard DeAndrea. I'm a medical doctor. What I saw up here was martial law. This turned into a police state. Everything you have seen on television regarding local news broadcasts including national public radio was a blackout. The police were using concussion grenades. They were using shooting tear gas canisters directly at protesters’ faces. They were using rubber bullets. Some of the damage I saw from these rubber bullets took off part of a person's jaw, smashed teeth in their mouth. I saw the police arrest people who had their hands up in the air screaming we are peacefully protesting.

The amount of looting that took place was so minimal I don't even know where they got the footage from. I am saying this beyond a shadow of a doubt. This is a definite sign that American is heading towards a police state unless people start standing up for their rights as individuals. I am actually shocked and ashamed. I am ashamed of the police force, I am ashamed of the mayor I am ashamed of Bill Clinton. I am ashamed of the whole thing.

Jared: These rubber bullets - what are they?

Dr. DeAndrea: They are made of polyester type material. They are like a hard plastic toy. The idea is to hit your body, do damage, not actually penetrate. But I did see penetration wounds, I did see people bleeding. I did see teeth loss, I did see broken bones. There were children present, there were families present, they were firing upon families, mothers, grandmothers. They were just firing at them. They came out in full police force. They brought out swat teams, they had the national guard up here, there was CIA surrounding the delegates' buildings. It was very obvious that there was an institutional control that had no regard of human rights whatever.

In addition we have video footage of protesters being taken away as well as human rights being violated. Prisoners were taken and they were tortured. There is a case, I believe his name is Holm, Keith Holm. He was tortured because he would not give his name. They handcuffed, laid him on the floor, they smashed his face against the concrete, they grabbed his hair, they ripped out a lock of hair. and then placed pencils between his fingers on them until he would give his name. They were also banging his head against metal objects. He was actually the first protester released because the Internal Affairs came in to do an investigation and they wanted him gone because he would be able to give testimony.

We're treating people in a studio loft downtown. I just treated an ear wound. People have been treated for concussion injuries. There have been people who have been treated for plastic bullet wounds. Lots of tear gas injuries, lots of damage to cornea, lots of damage to the eyes and skins. They were using a pepper spray, a tear gas and they were also using some sort of nerve gas. We had reports of many demonstrators winding up with seizures the next day. It causes muscles to clamp up, muscle contraction, seizures.

They have done several illegal things regarding these people in jail. They have been telling them that they would not be let out, not have their bail set if they didn't get their names. Its their legal right not to give their name. They don't have to speak at all. Attorneys came up and said we are representing these people. The police called their attorneys liars. At this point they have still refused to let any of them see their clients. There are close to 600 people who were arrested and they have been holding them for two days on charges that are mostly misdemeanors - refusal to disperse. A lot of people in there have not gotten medical attention, either. I have gotten calls from young ladies in there who have had all sorts of emotional problems as well as physical problems. They have called me for medical attention from inside the jail. There are people still sitting in there who have not even been processed.

Today there were fewer attacks by police, but they did arrest more people. And there was no violence today by the marchers and all through the day yesterday it was the same. What you are seeing on television about looting and anarchistic protesters - there's straight-out blackout they are basically pushing that. There is not much damage to property here. There are not many windows that have been damaged or stores that have been looted. Those are extremely rare cases.

I used to believe newspapers were telling the truth. But now I am no longer behind that.

This shouldn't happen in America.

This is still America, isn't it? I'm beginning to wonder.

Posted on 12/03/1999 23:11:12 PST by Arator |

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-----Original Message-----
From: Gj3447@aol.com <Gj3447@aol.com>
To: <Mindcontrol-L@mail.sonic.net>
Date: Saturday, 4 December 1999 21:19
Subj: [MC] Undercover Police at the WTO march on Tuesday

I live in Portland, OR, about a two hour drive from Seattle.   I went to the Tuesday Labor rally that started at the Memorial Stadium and went through downtown Seattle. I went with a friend who works for the local community TV cable access station in town. Both of us were going with the expressed intention of videoing the affair but with one difference from most who were videoing. We decided that the theme of the video would be observing surveillance techniques used by the police.

Amazing enough we started observing a particular behavior by certain people who were not wearing any police uniforms.   They were all talking into the same type of cell phone. Upon further inspection we observed that these cell phones had no dial pads, they were radios of some sort. After that they started standing out. The police must have a clothing allowance for "street clothes" because the majority of these police were wearing brand new Levi's, wind breakers, and looked like they had just got a hair cut. The frightening part was that we saw at least 4 undercovers dressed up as union people with hard hats and the union windbreakers like most were wearing. They were using the same "cell phones" as the others. I purposely got close enough to hear one of them say on his radio "We are going to need reinforcements up here." Another frightening observation was when saw a young male who could have easily passed as one of the "anarchist" (dressed in old worn clothes and a hooded sweat shirt) pull out the same radio and talk into it. I would say just in a 3-4 block area we saw between 10-15 of these undercover cops. We of course videod them. They usually turned away when they observed us taping them.

The point I am making is that most likely the whole parade was infiltrated with undercover cops. Who knows they could have been ATF and FBI. I most likely can assume that there is a high probability that some of these could have been the agent provocateurs who did the damage also. The news tonight said that only six people of the 500-700 people arrested were charged with felonies. Gee what happened to the rest who were tearing things up.

Greg

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WTO Protesters Push To Free Friends

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS

.c The Associated Press

SEATTLE (Dec. 4. 99) - With the World Trade Organization leaving town in defeat, protesters today stepped up efforts to get hundreds of their comrades out of jail.

And the city moved to get shoppers back into the downtown core after a week of sometimes violent protests.

''It's a time to heal,'' said Mayor Paul Schell at a morning news conference in the Westlake Center plaza, where he restarted the holiday carousel.

''We're taking the city back to make Seattle again,'' he said, urging Christmas shoppers to spend money downtown.

Several hundred people launched a party in front of the King County Jail after learning Friday night that WTO delegates had failed to reach agreement on an agenda for a new round of global trade talks. Some were still there this morning.

As lawyers negotiated with government officials over terms for releasing some 300 people still behind bars after a week of sometimes violent protests, demonstrators chanted, ''Let them go! Let them go!''

Those talks resumed early this morning as the city's Municipal Court - which operated until midnight Friday - got back to work processing and releasing detainees.

An eclectic mix of people joined the jubilant protesters - from former 1960s radical Tom Hayden to King County Councilman Brian Derdowski.

''I never thought the time would come that a new generation of activists would part the waters,'' Hayden, a former California state senator, said to roars from the crowd.

Protesters were fortified by donations of food, water and warm clothing from labor unions and other sympathizers.

Bongo drums pounded out a raucous beat as people danced in the courtyard of the jail in downtown Seattle.

''It's the beginning of the end for the WTO!'' they chanted.

A handful of protesters chained themselves to one entrance of the Westin Hotel. President Clinton stayed at the Westin when he visited Seattle earlier in the week to promote the WTO negotiations. Some WTO delegates also were staying there.

Critics contend the WTO, a 135-nation organization that is based in Geneva and sets rules for world trade, disregards human rights, labor protections and environmental concerns in promoting international commerce.

The week's demonstrations led to the arrests of more than 580 people, an estimated $2.5 million in property damage and some $9.5 million in lost retail sales.

Inside the jail, protesters arrested during the week were being processed as quickly as the city court system could handle them. About 120 were expected to be released early today.

Derdowski said King County Executive Ron Sims and Seattle City Attorney Mark Sidran negotiated with lawyers for the jailed protesters.

Those negotiations broke off around midnight Friday, said lead protesters' lawyer Katya Komisarek. She said Sims assured the demonstrators they could remain outside the jail as long as the negotiating continued.

Komisarek declined to identify points of disagreement in the talks.

Ann Benson, another lawyer for protesters, said they wanted their clients freed with no fines, no restitution orders and only infraction notices. Infractions are not criminal charges, she said.

''We want to get everyone the same deal,'' Benson said.

On Tuesday, law enforcers were caught by surprise when tens of thousands jammed downtown streets to protest WTO policies. Police stood by as a few people smashed windows, sprayed graffiti, set fires and looted shops.

That night, Mayor Paul Schell declared a civil emergency and curfew. The National Guard was brought in and police arrested more than 500 protesters on Wednesday. No serious injuries were reported.

Quieter demonstrations continued Thursday and Friday.

Some shoppers ventured into upscale downtown stores on Friday, pleased by relative calm after days of demonstrations.

AP-NY-12-04-99 1351EDT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WTO Debacle Likely to Embolden Trade Opposition

By Donna Smith

Reuters

SEATTLE (Dec. 4, 99) - The collapse of a new round of global trade negotiations may strengthen the hand of labor and environmental groups as they press the U.S. Congress to reject President Bill Clinton's landmark trade agreement with China.

Clinton was already gearing up for a bruising fight in the Republican-controlled Congress over the deal, which would open a wide range of Chinese markets and clear the way for Beijing to join the World Trade Organization (WTO).

But analysts said massive street protests against last week's WTO meeting in Seattle and Clinton's failure to clinch a new round of global trade negotiations during the session bode ill for his ability to muster support in Congress for China and other trade initiatives.

"It will be perceived as a major victory for those who protested," one WTO participant said of the collapse of the Seattle talks. "It further raises the stakes on China and emboldens opponents."

Fresh from victory in Seattle, labor leaders said it was only the beginning of their campaign to raise the voice of workers in trade deals like the one struck with China last month.

"The breakdown reflects the first step in a serious coming to terms with pivotal issues," said John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO 13-million member labor federation.

Teamsters Union President James Hoffa said in a CNN interview it was clear labor had newfound clout in the trade arena.

"From here on out this is going to be a coalition that's going to have to be dealt with, that's going to play a role in any type of dealing with China with regard to the Normal Trade Relations (NTR) debate that's coming up," Hoffa said.

"I look for more demonstrations in Washington to bring out people and say, 'Hey, this is a serious problem, we're not buying it,'" he said.

OPPOSING THE TRADE DEAL WITH CHINA

Labor leaders have said they would join forces with environmentalists, human rights groups and consumer advocates in opposing the trade deal with China when lawmakers take it up next year.

Congress must vote to grant Beijing permanent NTR trade privileges as part of the deal that would open China's vast market potential to U.S. businesses. Currently China's NTR, which gives it low-tariff access to U.S. markets, must be renewed each year.

The annual debate often focuses attention on Beijing's record on human rights, nuclear weapons proliferation and the environment as well as the huge U.S. trade deficit with China.

Clinton is counting on the business community to lead the fight in Congress for the China deal even though the group has long been skeptical of his commitment to free trade and his push to bring labor and environmental issues into negotiations.

Free trade Republicans were confident Congress would come around and support the China deal despite the debacle in Seattle.

"I am ready for battle," Rep. David Dreier, a leading Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives and strong supporter of China's entry into the WTO.

But he voiced doubts about Clinton's ability to lead the fight. Clinton in the past went against labor unions and other Democratic constituencies to press for his free trade agenda. Now he appears unwilling to take on groups that supported him through impeachment, Dreier said.

"That kind of thing sends a signal, it empowers the opposition," he added.

Clinton will be under intense pressure to take labor and environmental issues into account during the Congressional debate on China.

"I look forward to working with the Clinton administration with the goal of fostering a progressive trade agenda that enhances global living standards and quality of life while opening markets for U.S. exports," House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt said in a statement.

09:02 12-05-99

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seattle Recovers From WTO Meetings

By LUIS CABRERA

.c The Associated Press

SEATTLE (Dec. 4, 99) - Children, not yellow police tape, ringed the downtown holiday carousel Saturday for the first time in nearly a week as this shaken city recovered from the mayhem that accompanied the World Trade Organization meeting.

''Let's heal the city,'' Mayor Paul Schell said at a news conference to mark the restarting of the carousel.

''I understand everybody's angry and offended. I feel offended myself by the things that happened here. But it's time to heal,'' he said, surrounded by shoppers at Westlake Park, which had been a sealed crime scene since mass arrests Wednesday.

Trade delegates were heading for the airport Saturday after negotiations to launch a new round of global trade talks collapsed, but not all protesters were ready to leave.

Scores remained outside a vacant downtown apartment building, waiting for an expected police crackdown on activists inside who were demanding that it be converted to homeless housing.

Several hundred more continued a protest outside the King County Jail, calling for the release of more than 300 protesters still awaiting processing after arrest.

Plywood that had covered entire blocks of storefront windows in the fashionable downtown shopping core was coming down, however.

''Being a Seattleite, I'm glad that it's all over and we can have our city back,'' said Monette Roberts, 31, who was strolling past the carousel with her 1 1/2-year-old daughter, Ilea.

''I'd like to see this city get back to normal as soon as possible,'' said Anna Aziz, 30, an employee of a downtown Washington Mutual bank branch who was helping other volunteers tie red bows. The ribbons, provided by the city, were being distributed to businesses as symbols of solidarity and renewal.

City officials offered free meter parking and bus service to draw shoppers back downtown, as well as 20,000 jingle bells.

''We're glad those protesters are gone,'' said Keith Taylor, 38, a homeless panhandler in a wheelchair who has staked out a spot outside the downtown Gap store.

AP-NY-12-04-99 1703EDT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Clinton Singled Out in WTO Blame Game

By Adam Entous

Reuters

SEATTLE (Dec. 4, 99) - So much for the Clinton round.

Touted as one of President Clinton's top foreign policy goals, a new round of global trade talks that might have carried his name collapsed before it even got started.

Many delegates at this week's World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle said Clinton was to blame.

He infuriated Japan by vehemently refusing to renegotiate anti-dumping laws that protect U.S. industries from cheap imports, and alienated developing nations by suggesting trade sanctions be used to punish countries that don't live up to core labor standards.

By standing firm, Clinton may curry favor from labor unions and other U.S. groups, but in the process, undercut U.S. leadership at the talks, some diplomats said.

''It was the Americans,'' said a European Union official. ''They were so determined to drive through their own agenda that they were blind to where this would lead.''

CLINTON ON THE DEFENSIVE

U.S. officials insisted that labor and dumping issues were not solely to blame for failure to launch a round after four days of fruitless talks, and pointed the finger at nations that refused to give ground on agriculture and other matters.

''Labor issues shouldn't be used to mask the fact that certain countries, other than the United States, were unwilling to be reasonable at the negotiating table,'' a U.S. administration official said.

Clinton had a lot riding on the Seattle meeting.

Launching a round would have given his legacy a much-needed boost following the humiliation of the Monica Lewinsky affair and impeachment trial.

It would also have helped dispel the notion that the United States had grown increasingly protectionist, and was shrinking from its global leadership role.

But Clinton's trade agenda clashed with the short-term goal of ensuring that his chosen successor, Vice President Al Gore, held onto the support of labor and environmental groups in next year's election.

The White House feared a backlash from unions, including the 13-million member AFL-CIO, had WTO member nations rejected a U.S. plan to create a working group on labor.

Clinton also risked a revolt from steelmakers and other U.S. industry groups and their allies in Congress if he agreed to a WTO-backed review of anti-dumping laws, which allow the U.S. to impose duties on foreign goods sold in the United States at below fair market value.

Clinton's position may look smart politically. A recent opinion poll showed 83 percent of Americans thought the United States should insist on other countries meeting environmental and labor standards as part of any future trade accords.

But Rep. David Dreier, a leading Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, said Clinton was too beholden to organized labor and other traditional Democratic allies that supported him through impeachment, and not committed enough to trade liberalization.

''I wish that the president would have had the same kind of strong and dynamic commitment that he did in 1993 when we worked so closely together to pass the North American Free Trade Agreement,'' said Dreier, referring to the accord that boosted trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman William Roth, a Delaware Republican, had predicted the Seattle talks could collapse if Clinton insisted on pressing for labor reforms, since the issue would alienate developing nations, which make up two-thirds of the WTO's membership. Developing countries saw the labor proposal as Western protectionism.

LACK OF POPULAR SUPPORT FOR TRADE

But trade experts said the failure of the talks reflected a lack of popular support for free trade in the United States and around the world.

''Countries discovered there was no real shared consensus on the need for additional trade liberalization at this time,'' former senior U.S. trade negotiator Ira Shapiro said.

A European Union diplomat added: ''It was very clear leading up to the (Seattle) ministerial that countries were not highly motivated to make concessions.''

Some U.S. officials singled out the EU for blame, saying its refusal to consider the elimination of huge farm export subsidies bogged down negotiations.

Clinton tried to put a positive spin on the what diplomats saw as an embarrassing fiasco.

''I remain optimistic that we can use the coming months to narrow our differences and launch a successful new round of global trade talks,'' he said in a statement.

Reut17:39 12-04-99

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nations Call for WTO Reforms

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER

.c The Associated Press

SEATTLE (Dec. 4, 99) - The collapse of an effort to launch a new round of global trade talks left the United States and 134 other nations searching for answers Saturday over what went wrong and how to fix it.

Anti-World Trade Organization demonstrators who thronged the streets and official delegations inside the convention hall agreed on one thing: The 5-year-old Geneva-based organization, created to referee rules of global trade, is a badly flawed institution in need of repair.

''The WTO really needs reform,'' an exhausted Pascal Lamy, the European Union's trade commissioner, told a news conference early Saturday. He spoke shortly after the talks had collapsed following four days of marathon bargaining.

Lamy, a Frenchman, pointedly noted that he was not a Johnny-come-lately to this view. He warned throughout the week that the WTO's organizational flaws could doom the effort to launch new negotiations for lowered trade barriers in agriculture, manufactured goods and services such as banking.

In the end, he was proved right. U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky was forced to concede as much in her own closing news conference.

President Clinton had pushed during his visit to Seattle for the WTO to open its now-secret dispute-settlement procedures to engender greater public confidence in the outcomes.

Barshefsky, who chaired the conference and came under heavy fire from Third World delegates for not keeping them apprised, said the WTO should be opened up not only to the outside world but also to its member nations.

''We found that the WTO has outgrown the processes appropriate for an earlier time,'' Barshefsky said.

In the old days, the WTO and its predecessor organization, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, conducted trade rounds mainly as the province of rich countries. But the organization, which started with 23 member countries in 1947, now has grown to 135 nations; three-fourths of them are from the Third World.

Some African nations became so upset in Seattle about what they saw as exclusion from the negotiating rooms that they threatened to walk out.

The WTO's newest member, Estonia, and its ambassador to Washington, Kalev Stoicescu, said he was surprised and disappointed by much of what happened.

''There had been little information about what was going on. It looked like most of the countries were uninformed,'' he said.

Barshefsky and Mike Moore, the WTO's director general, promised to fix those problems when they try early next year in Geneva to get a new round of talks off the ground. But Lamy said no one should be under an illusion it will be easy to change a process to conduct global trade negotiations that has been in use for 50 years.

Many of the protesters took to Seattle's streets not to reform the WTO but to abolish it. They see the organization as the embodiment of a global economy run amok, trampling over workers' rights, environmental protection and other issues.

The Clinton administration struggled to deal with those goals as well but could not overcome stiff opposition from poorer countries, who viewed Clinton's demands that WTO consider workers' rights in future trade deals as a subtle move to take away the advantage they enjoy over high-wage rich nations.

In the end, it was not just the fight over worker rights that doomed the Seattle effort. Wide splits erupted on a number of problems, from how to protect electronic commerce, the world's newest business, to how to tear down barriers for its oldest, farming.

Gene Sperling, Clinton's chief economic adviser, said the issues just proved too complex to be resolved in four days.

''The decision was made that a better round could be launched by taking time out at this point and reconvening after both countries and the WTO as an institution have a period to reflect on the best way to go forward,'' Sperling said.

Barshefsky promised talks would continue in January in two areas, agriculture and services, because those sectors were part of a negotiating agenda agreed to five years ago.

But Lori Wallach, director Public Citizen Global Trade Watch, was skeptical.

''Until they are willing to make fundamental changes to make the WTO system more broadly acceptable, they will face the same problems in Geneva that they did in Seattle,'' she said.

AP-NY-12-04-99 1228EDT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Subj: URGENT-Seattle Update/Pregnant Woman Miscarries After Beaten, Gassed by Police

Date: 12/03/1999 12:53:54 PM Central Standard Time

From: hawkeye@saber.net (NewsHawk Inc.)

12.3.99

URGENT--Seattle Update/

Pregnant Woman Miscarries After Beaten, Gassed by Police

John Prukop of Citizens for a Constitutional Washington (CCW) sends us this latest update on events in Seattle, and a very disturbing one it is, too.

A sickening, horrifying and heartbreaking example of the vicious, brutal tactics being employed by Seattle police against not ONLY anti-World Trade organization protesters but against defenseless citizens in general is the news that a four-months pregnant woman, who along with her husband was leaving her job in downtown Seattle, was beaten by police and pepper-sprayed/tear-gassed as she exited the hotel where both worked. The woman was taken to a hospital where her wounds stitched up--but not long after she miscarried and their child was lost.

The hideous details of the unconscionable outrage were made public by the husband on KIRO NewsRadio 710 AM in Seattle yesterday.

By ALL rights everyone from the mayor on to the cops directly responsible for the assault should have criminal charges brought against them for this tragic, needless death.

Another KIRO caller reported that cops were using a code word to alert each other to the fact witnesses and/or news media personnel and cameras were nearby or approaching, so that the inhuman, vicious Gestapo tactics being used against helpless civilians by law enforcement goon squads would be temporarily modified until no witnesses or media were present. Innocent people, OUR fellow citizens, are said to be getting beaten and gassed indiscriminately on the streets.

Welcome to the New World Order.

Included in the material below is an excerpt from one the the CCW's papers on the New World Order. Below that is a forward of a letter by a frequent Seattle visitor who won't be returning to the city for QUITE a while, and wonders just WHY the WTO was allowed to convene in Seattle ... or ANYWHERE in this country for that matter!

NewsHawk® Inc.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Subject: SEATTLE "POLICE STATE" TACTICS CLAIM FIRST FATALITY! ...

And the "WTO/International Program"

Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 15:31:02 -0800

From: "CCW"

NewsHawk, et al.,

Moments ago Seattle Mayor Paul Schell and Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper concluded a press conference "rationalizing" their actions the last couple of days. We learned that the Director of the Port of Seattle, Pat Davis, is the individual responsible for "inviting" the WTO to Seattle. During the news conference the Mayor and Police Chief "prided" themselves that the police had conducted themselves in a "lawful manner" and that no one, either police or protestor, had been seriously injured. We listened to the broadcast over KIRO NewsRadio 710 in Seattle, which was the audio portion from a live telecast over KIRO TV-7. Police Chief Norm Stamper said that some of the video he had reviewed of the police incidents with protestors in Seattle were "disturbing", and that if any of his officers were "out of line," they would be "disciplined".

After the press conference concluded, KIRO NewsRadio resumed its talk show, taking callers regarding the news conference. An individual identifying himself as "Todd" called in at approximately 1:45PM PST and stated that he and his wife were employed for a downtown hotel working in housekeeping, and when their shifts concluded, they departed the hotel to catch a shuttle home. Todd stated his wife was four months pregnant. According to Todd, his wife was struck and beaten with a police baton and pepper sprayed/gassed as she exited the hotel whereupon she collapsed. She was then transported to a hospital to have 7-stitches to close-up her wounds. Todd, in an extremely upset state, then stated that approximately 40-minutes later his wife miscarriaged and the unborn child was lost. He calls the Mayor and his police chief "murderers". Todd concluded by stating that he and his wife absolutely despise the City of Seattle and will move.

Perhaps someone has the audio portion of this broadcast to transcribe the exact comments from "Todd", and if this event can be confirmed, then it can be clearly stated that Todd and his wife were innocent victims of unprovoked police brutality, and an innocent child WAS murdered in Seattle because of the WTO, an illegal international organization. As to the authenticity of Todd's statements, the caller was in such a state of dispair and tearing, that there is no reason to conclude that what he was saying was untrue.

A later caller to KIRO NewsRadio at approximately 2:12PM PST stated that police were using a "code word" amongst themselves anytime television cameras got too close enough to film any details. The caller stated that people were being indiscriminately beaten and gassed, and fired upon at "point blank" range in the face, but police modified their tactics when cameras got too close. "Hamper" is the nickname the caller gave to Police Chief Stamper, because of the chief's "dirty laundry", and that there will be NO investigation of anything his officers did.

From our white paper, "International News: Human and Natural Resources And The New World Order":

To reach the "objective" of "sustainable development" and "enhance the means for doing so", the members of the WTO are funded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Department of Agriculture, Department of Interior, Department of Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency, etc., and the several States of the Union are ALL specifically listed as receiving funding from the IMF's "Special Drawing Rights" (SDR) accounts. (See: Uruguay Round Trade Agreements, House Document 103-316).

THE FUNDING TO IMPLEMENT THE PROGAM THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY DOES NOT COME FROM THE CONGRESS OR THE STATE LEGISLATURES. The International agents in our public offices have received payment and assistance from their true master (principal), the International Organizations, via "The Fund" [IMF-UN] and "The Bank" [World Bank-UN]. Going into the public offices to complain about the adverse affects and damages being caused by the programs is a true effort in futility. People who complain are ignorant of the International policy, plans, programs and projects, and are denied remedy or relief without further explanation. The people who have complained either do not know, or have forgotten, that the projects and property falling within the "Exchange Stabilization Fund" [SDR Programs] "ARE NOT REVIEWABLE BY ANY OFFICER OF THE UNITED STATES". The people do not know about their Congressmen signing the "Declaration of INTERdependence" in 1976, whereby they pledged their allegiance to the UNITED NATIONS! They lack knowledge of the new "Constitution of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization", which was quietly ratified in 1980, and are equally ignorant about the U.N. "World Charter For Nature", and who actually dictate the policy. The situation presents a clear and ludicrous example of "DUMBocracy" at work. The people who thought they had rights and liberties secured by National and State Constitution's, are surprised when their socialist DUMBocracy runs into members of the International Aristocracy. The USURPERS in public offices are there to make sure that the domestic offices do not function in the manner intended; to the contrary, the international agents are there to roguely "enhance" the TYRANNICAL GLOBAL PLAN AND SYSTEMATIC SCHEME.

There is NO clause in the several international agreements which provide for "the support, protection, and defense of the natural rights of the people; the principles of where are Life, Liberty, and Property." Under the International Agreements, the Constitution and domestic laws of the United States of America, like those of the several States, are mere words on paper, A DEAD LETTER!

The International program is intended to recreate archaic "Roman...MASTER AND SLAVE ESTATES" upon and over the land and its use through "conservation easements" and other "concessions". [See: "The Easement: A Conservation Technique" -- IUCN Environmental Law Paper No. 1 by David D. Gregory (1972), pd. 10]

The move toward an International Monetary and Trade System surfaced through proposed legislation in about 1897. The several States of the Union at that time STILL had DIRECT CONTROL over their Senators in Washington, D.C. Some of these States passed Resolutions that directed their Senators in D.C. to veto the proposed legislation. The legislation was subsequently defeated and EXPRESS CONSENT was DENIED. However, in 1913, Constitutional Amendment 17 was passed that mandated Senators were to "be elected by the people." This REMOVED one of the obstacles that had blocked the first attempt to create an International Monetary and Trade System. At this time, the "Republic" became a "Democracy" and the nature of our political infrastructure became "National" instead of "Federal" because the State in its collective SOVEREIGN capacity had been REMOVED from DIRECT REPRESENTATION and CONTROL. [See Federal Papers No. 39 by James Madison]

Twenty two years after the defeat and denial of the movement to create an International Monetary and Trade System, the League of Nations was instituted under the Peace Treaty of Versailles (June 29, 1919). The treaty was intended to give form and credence to the global movement. The move toward an International Monetary System was not dead. In 1928, the League of Nations, the precursor to today's United Nations" held an International Conference Relating To Economic Statistics to encourage the collection and global dissemination of national information on economics and and resources. The contrived "Great Depression" gave them a reason to expand their collection of information. The Committee of Statistical Experts of the League of Nations (1939) continued and expanded their work of collecting information concerning: (1) indices on industrial production; (2) housing; (3) income; (4) international trade and balance of payments. [See: System Of National Accounts 1993 - "Perspectives on the 1993 SNA, pg xxxvii by U.N., World Bank, IMF, OECD, ISBN 92-1-161352-3] This project was later absorbed into the United Nations and continued with the combined efforts of the IMF and World Bank under the Bretton Woods Agreements. Under these International Organizations the project was expanded and renamed the "System of National Accounts". The people located within areas subject to the International Organization's system are ultimately liable to pay all of the expenses and debts of the system; as such, they are designated as "human resources" and "institutional units". Those citizens or residents of the United Nations -- now including all U.S. citizens who possess a Social (Communist) Security Number (SSN) are officially recognized internationally as INSTITUTIONAL UNITS of the International Monetary Fund, which is under the exclusive direction and control of the "Governor" of the IMF [See: 22 USC 286]. they are deficient of ALL RIGHTS under the Constitution for the United States (1787) or the Constitution of the United States (1868), having been USURPED by sequestration. The title of "U.S. citizen" or "Resident" is acquired by the signing of CONCESSIONS (governmental contracts) where therein create a state of HOMAGE. These acts of Homage therein create a status of the person (in law), being the U.S. citizen or Resident as a Subservient or Peasantry Slave Property to their new master known as the District of Columbia, and via international agreement, ultimately "The Fund" and "The Bank". It's no secret now why many corporations have a "Human Resource" department. It was planned that way.

Dr. Arthur J. Altmeyer, on November 27, 1953, commenting at a Hearing before the Subcommittee of the Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives, 83rd Congress, First Session, on the legal status of OASI benefits, concluded his remarks by saying that the Social Security System was not an insurance, nor a Trust fund, nor did it guarantee anything to anyone (unilateral contract), and that "someone had misrepresented something to someone"; and it was further determined that the special taxes laid and collected under the pretenses of Social Security were NOT earmarked for any special purpose and were placed in the General Fund under control of the Governor of "The Fund" and "The Bank" of the United Nations.

Welcome to the "global plantation" of the New World Order. The People still have the power to change all of this . . . if they will become educated.

/s/ John R. Prukop, Legal Researcher

CCW Coalition
Concerned Citizens of Washington
Citizens For A Constitutional Washington
John R. Prukop, Executive Director
11910-C Meridian Ave. E., #142
Puyallup, Washington 98373
TEL: (253) 840-8071
FAX: (253) 840-8074

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"Charles C. Carter" wrote:

Wouldn't it be interesting to find out who allowed the WTO to invade the city of Seattle? If I were a resident of Seattle, I would make certain that the Mayor and City Council were recalled ASAP for allowing the WTO meeting, the millions of dollars that the taxpayers had to pay to quell the riots, the cost to the state of WA. for the National Guard to come, etc. etc. I do hope that the citizens of Seattle have already begun working on ousting these incompetents that allowed the WTO into their beautiful city. Also, the public relations nightmare created has become immense! We have always liked Seattle and visit frequently, but will not give Seattle any of our vacation money for several years to come because of their City officials' stupidity and lack of concern for the safety of their own taxpaying residents!!! SHAME, SHAME ON THEM!!! Char Carter, Monterey, CA p.s. We also know that Clinton and the "New World Order were also behind this destructive meeting in our Country!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No Deal Near as WTO Talks Wrap Up

By Adam Entous

Reuters

SEATTLE (Dec. 3, 99) - Trade ministers battled on Friday to overcome obstacles to the launch of a new round of trade liberalization talks as they entered the final frantic hours of a World Trade Organization (WTO) conference.

Ministers from the WTO's 135 member nations struggled to bridge deep-seated divisions on many issues, from cutting farm subsidies to imposing minimum labor standards on developing countries to reviewing trade retaliation laws.

The talks could deal a blow to President Bill Clinton's agenda. The latest draft of a final WTO declaration, still subject to intense debate, balked at a U.S.-backed proposal to set up a WTO working group on labor and called for a review of trade retaliation laws over U.S. objections.

U.S. officials scrambled to recast the document to avert a backlash from powerful U.S. labor unions, industry groups and their allies in Congress, who see the labor working group and preservation of U.S. anti-dumping laws as a top priority.

But diplomats said the United States faced difficult odds in achieving its own negotiating goals without derailing the launch of a new round of global trade negotiations at the meeting it is sponsoring here.

"It's the United States versus the rest of the world," a Japanese official said.

PROGRESS, BUT GAPS REMAIN

The European Union's chief negotiator, Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, said major gaps remained between the 15-nation EU and the United States, the world's most important trading powers. They must bury their differences if a new round is to be launched at the conference, scheduled to end late on Friday.

In Washington, Clinton said he felt he was making some progress in efforts to launch the round, calling Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. U.S. officials said he has also talked to a number of other world leaders.

"We're making a little progress," Clinton said.

Friday's last-minute discussions focused on agricultural subsidies, long one of the most contentious issues in international trade, an EU official said.

"If they get through ag, then that should break the deadlock," U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley said.

WTO members have been bitterly divided over the scope of the three-year round of trade talks ministers are trying to launch in Seattle.

The EU calls for a broad agenda and others, such as the Australian-led Cairns group of 18 major agricultural producing countries, want to keep the focus firmly on the EU's farm policies.

"This is the moment of truth," Canadian Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew said.

The convention center where the WTO delegates are meeting -- the target of angry demonstrations all week by thousands of protesters who see the WTO as a symbol of the ill effects of globalization -- buzzed with activity as delegates ran from room to room trying to hammer out agreements.

Six working groups set up to study some of the most controversial areas of the negotiations have turned in reports to U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, chairing the meeting, and WTO Director-General Mike Moore, who were trying to merge them into a single text, trade diplomats said.

But intense horse-trading continued and some delegates said it was touch and go whether overall agreement could be hammered out by the 6 p.m. deadline for closing the session set by Barshefsky.

"Never underestimate the potential for breakdown," WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said on Thursday night.

DEVELOPING COUNTRY REVOLT

The conference faced a revolt from developing countries, who complained that trade powers such as the United States, the EU and Japan have carved out deals behind the scenes while their views are ignored.

"There is no transparency in the proceedings and African countries are being marginalized and generally excluded on issues of vital importance," the Organization of African Unity said in a statement threatening not to sign any accord.

Developing countries are seeking more time to implement some pledges they made under an earlier round of trade liberalization that ended in 1994.

In agriculture, the main battle has been over farm export subsidies with the EU resisting demands from the United States and Cairns group to commit to the abolition of those subsidies.

Speaking at a summit on the French island of Reunion, French President Jacques Chirac said the European Union would not compromise on farm subsidies.

Many developing countries have opposed attempts by the United States and EU to get minimum labor standards on the agenda of the WTO, fearing the issue could be used as a protectionist tool against them.

European diplomats said there had been progress on labor standards, with a draft text drawn up along the lines of an EU proposal calling for a joint International Labor Organization/WTO working forum on trade and labor issues.

But Shipra Biswas, an official from India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said India was against any form of discussion of labor standards within the WTO.

"We are totally opposed to it and have no intention of yielding," she said. "We believe it is a Trojan horse for protectionism and our political mandate is to oppose it."

Anti-dumping rules remain a major stumbling block for negotiators. Japan and other critics want the WTO to renegotiate the rules, which allow the U.S. government to impose punitive duties and tariffs on foreign-made products it deems to be sold at less than production costs.

Tokyo says the Clinton administration has abused the rules to prop up U.S. steel companies and other cash-strapped industries facing stiff foreign competition.

REUTERS 17:10 12-03-99

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WTO Struggles for Compromise

By NAOMI KOPPEL

.c The Associated Press

SEATTLE (Dec. 3, 99) - Trade ministers narrowed their differences on farm policy but still had to resolve bitter fights over labor rights and a host of other issues before launching a new round of talks to reduce global trade barriers.

Wrapping up four days of negotiations marred by violent street protests, the 135-nation World Trade Organization hoped to reach the finish line today with a deal on the specific agenda for what should be covered by the new talks.

U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, who is chairing the sessions, said trade ministers would work through the night Thursday with the goal of having a finished deal by the end of today, when the sessions are scheduled to wrap up.

She said the various groups were making ``quite significant progress.''

But other WTO officials cautioned there were still a large number of issues to be resolved, with all countries waiting until the 11th hour before giving in on long-held negotiating positions.

``Never underestimate the potential for a breakdown,'' WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell told reporters late Thursday. ``This could still fall apart. It is at a very delicate stage.''

President Clinton has infuriated developing nations, who account for more than 100 of the 135 members of the WTO, by saying rules protecting workers should be included in future trade deals - and that sanctions should be imposed on violators.

Developing nations, whose economies have expanded thanks to cheap labor, say richer countries are only pressing the issue to protect themselves from inexpensive imports.

Some Asian nations have hinted they won't agree to a new round of trade talks if it includes any mention of labor rights, which they believe should be handled separately from WTO rules governing global commerce.

``If Clinton pursues the labor issue, it may make us wonder what's the point?'' said Asmat Kamaludin, secretary-general of Malaysia's ministry of international trade and industry. ``We cannot agree to the inclusion of labor in the WTO.''

The talks that began Tuesday have been overshadowed by violence in the streets, with almost 600 people arrested since demonstrators who view the WTO as a global menace successfully disrupted the meeting. Seattle police in riot gear are patrolling streets in a downtown area that is under curfew in an official state of emergency.

Businesses say they have lost $7 million in sales, and another $2 million in damage has been tallied, as the massive trade event that was intended to showcase Seattle was spoiled by the rioting.

Arriving Thursday evening in Philadelphia, Clinton said he was pleased that the United States had hosted the trade talks in Seattle, despite the disruptions. ``It was a good thing for our country to be part of the debate over the future,'' he said.

While some countries said the WTO might end up failing to launch even a scaled-down negotiating round, U.S. negotiators continued to express optimism that a way would be found to paper over huge differences that exist between countries.

Late Thursday, the working group on agriculture completed its work with a one-page draft declaration. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said he believed negotiations in this area represented ``significant progress'' for the administration, which is counting on big cuts in farm barriers to please American farmers and help sell a final deal in Congress.

The text calls for members to move ``in the direction of progressive elimination of export subsidies,'' a statement aimed at reconciling the European Union, which has a large subsidy program, with countries led by the Cairns Group of agricultural nations, and the United States, which called for complete elimination of subsidies.

Many Third World countries said Clinton's remarks on labor rights here this week confirmed their worst fears that the U.S. administration, bowing to pressures from American labor unions, would ultimately demand trade sanctions for their alleged labor violations. They say that would make them even poorer.

``Our people don't get as much as someone in New York, but living standards are completely different,'' said Jose Guillermo Castillo, the economics minister of Guatemala.

Embattled Seattle Mayor Paul Schell, at a news conference Thursday, offered apologies to innocent citizens who had been hit with tear gas or rubber bullets. Schell said the city was walking a fine line between enforcing its no protest zone and allowing normal business activities to continue.

AP-NY-12-03-99 0721EDT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WTO Protests Calm Down

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS

.c The Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) - (December 3, 1999) The battle in Seattle has given way to the civilized exchange of ideas city officials brashly promised before the World Trade Organization meeting began.

A few thousand demonstrators rallied at the Pike Place Market on Thursday, marched to the King County Jail 13 blocks south - with a police motorcycle escort, yet - and then dispersed after dark in relative calm when city officials agreed to allow jailed activists to meet with lawyers.

What a difference a day makes.

It was chaos on Tuesday, when the WTO meeting officially began. A few dozen masked, black-clad anarchists amid the 40,000 non-violent demonstrators smashed windows, spray-painted slogans and vandalized police cars. Outmanned cops took little action, though 68 people were arrested.

On Wednesday, authorities struck back with a vengeance. Hundreds of National Guardsmen, state troopers and police were brought in to enforce a strict downtown curfew. Tear gas use was widespread, 504 people were arrested and a midnight confrontation on nearby Capitol Hill alarmed residents and local officials.

On Thursday, the city eased up. There were no reports of tear gas or pepper spray use. Just two people were arrested, bringing the total number of jailed protesters to 587, including 13 people taken into custody before the WTO meetings began.

Critics contend that the WTO, a 135-nation organization that is based in Geneva and sets rules for world trade, disregards human rights, labor protections and environmental concerns in promoting international commerce.

Not all those who rallied outside the jail were happy to leave Thursday evening. They had been demanding release of all of their comrades, and some were not mollified when the city agreed to let lawyers meet with those inside if the hundreds outside would move on.

``I don't think we won anything,'' said a woman who identified herself as Willa Nelson when a reporter was unwilling to accept her first nom de guerre, Willa Cather.

``It doesn't feel like we got what we came here for,'' said Nelson, who smeared toothpaste under her eyes as a protection against tear gas.

The gathering outside the jail was almost festive, with street theater and spontaneous concerts. Accompanied by tuba and drums, the crowd sang the Bob Dylan anthem, ``The times they are a-changing,'' and chanted slogans.

When one protester smashed a bottle into the street, he was hounded out of the area by others who insisted the demonstration remain peaceful.

When some demonstrators took down the American flag outside the jail and wanted to hang it upside down, Steelworker John Goodman stepped in to protect it.

``Man, let me tell you something - that flag stands for freedom,'' he said. ``That's what we're standing for.''

Attorney Katya Komisarek with the umbrella group Direct Action Network said the activists had helped secure the deal for legal counsel. Mayor Paul Schell invited activist leaders to work with him to disperse the crowd, she said.

``We need to reach a plea bargain with 400 people'' being held at the jail, she said, and attorneys planned to work through the night.

``We've got to get our friends out as soon as possible,'' said her associate, Devon Haymes. ``We're going to work all night to get people processed and out. If this is not working, we'll all be back at noon tomorrow.''

``Let's go have dinner,'' Komisarek told the loud boisterous crowd, using a megaphone.

In fact, the city was under court order to allow those arrested to meet with lawyers.

King County Superior Court Judge Michael Spearman issued an emergency order early Thursday requiring authorities to give defense lawyers access within eight hours to protesters, except for those who are ``physically uncooperative with the booking process.''

``Access to counsel is not contingent on answering police questions, including 'What is your name,''' Spearman said in his handwritten order.

Also Thursday, the mayor reduced the 24-hour curfew area to the 17-block area immediately surrounding the WTO meeting sites.

AP-NY-12-03-99 0344EDT

12-2-99 The WTO, like all big and international organizations, is part of the diabolical stew of ploys manoeuvering man into a forced collective without any of the natural beauties inherent in a unity formed by the shared love of the members, individuals. These organizations like to do what they do under the rubric of law, but without the peanut gallery making any contributions. On occasion, such organizations have been stopped from facilitating the crafting of the NWO, by persons who happened to be in the galleries, and who began shrieking when they heard what was being done. .... zeropoint From: Brett Baugh <brett.baugh@cyberplex.com> (ZEROPOINTER) (old-timer) Subject: Seattle: the real story What Would Gandhi Do? This came across my desk today. It was written by someone who is out in the streets with friends of friends from Athens, Ohio, and gives a first-hand account of what was going on from a protester's perspective. I don't think I need to point out it's a slightly different view than what we are getting from major media channels. To contrast and compare with the "official" story, see: http://cnn.com/1999/US/12/02/wto.03/ ------------------------------------------------------------ I got on a Greyhound bus in Pittsburgh at 3:00am, the morning after Thanksgiving, and travelled 2 and a half days to Seattle to join the protests against the World Trade Organization. I arrived to see tens of thousands of activists from the widest range of causes I've ever seen in one place, united around a common concern -- their desire to have a say in the decisions that affect their lives, otherwise known as "democracy." I won't go into the WTO in great detail. The information is out there. You can find out for yourself that in the 4 years the WTO has been in existence, it has ruled against every environmental and human health and safety regulation that has come before it and, through economic leverage, has compelled countries to repeal these barriers to free trade. Such barriers in this country have been the sections of the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act. But I won't go into that further. Instead I want to share with you what happened here, to me and thousands of others, yesterday. My friends and I woke up late Tuesday morning. One of the largest protests of the century, and we sleep in. We joined the protests at about 9:00 am, and joined a human chain of people blocking one entrance to the convention center where the first day of the WTO summit was to take place. This was the scene at every street that led to the convention center. The plan was to not let delegates enter and to shut down the meeting. This may sound drastic, but the purpose was to send a message that many have phrased as "No globalization without representation." The WTO meetings are closed to the public and the WTO is not subordinant to any national government or, more importantly, any democratic body. Yet it has shown itself to have more of a say in things as basic as the quality of the air we breath than we ourselves do. To me and nearly 50,000 others, this warranted the serious direct action. However, as serious as these demonstrations were, they were to be ALL non-violent. After being part of our own barrier to free trade and turning back WTO delegates for about an hour, we heard that protesters needed help at another intersection a few blocks away. Since there were more than enough people to keep up the barrier where we were, we left the blockade and headed for the corner of 8th and Seneca. When we arrived, we saw lots of demonstrators but no major media cameras. There was a smaller group of people sitting down on the street (which had already been closed) with police in riot gear standing behind them. Instead of the ordinary billy clubs, all of Seattle's police were holding 3 foot oak clubs that look more like basball bats than batons. When they began putting on their gas masks it became evident that they were planning to use pepper spray on the people sitting down. The rest of the crowd was pleading with the police not to use this cruel tactic. It was possible that if more people sat down, they police wouldn't spray them, so I joined that group. When it became apparent that they were going to use the spray anyway, we all locked legs and arms together and I pulled a bandana my friend had given me over my face, covering my mouth and eyes. Onlookers began yelling, "Get ready! They're going to do it! Get ready!" I heard the spray and people began screaming in pain. I was just expecting spray, so I was pretty surprised when I felt one of those big clubs land on the top of my head. The guy behind me took most of the force from the blow, so I wasn't hurt badly. I covered my head with my arm and covered my eyes with my hand, as the screams continued and it became obvious -even though I couldn't see anything from underneath my bandana- that the cops were not only spraying but beating the people as well. A police officer then grabbed my hand and pulled it away from my face and spayed me in the eyes with a cannister of pepper spray. I held my eyes closed tight and my bandana absorbed the spray, protecting my eyes and face. I breathed a little bit of it in and began coughing. The crowd started to break up as the police continued beating people. I pulled away and stood up, pulling the bandana away from my eyes to see the police beating the few people that remained sitting. One woman was trying to get up and they kept jabbing her in the side with their clubs. The rest of the crowd pulled those people to safety and began washing their eyes with a solution of baking soda and water to counter the effects of the blinding pepper spray. This was my first experience with the spray. I got a tiny bit of the spray on my forehead and it burnt very badly, was very painful. I can't even begin to imagine the pain the people felt who got it sprayed directly into their eyes. I think I was luckier than anyone else I was sitting with, having escaped the spray and only having been clubbed once. I screamed at the cops for a while, called them fascist pigs between plenty of other expletives. But when things calmed down a bit, myself and others began speaking to the police. It suddenly became evident that some of them were visibly disturbed by what they had just done. One female officer's hands were shaking as she held her club up to her chest like the rest did in the line they had formed. She kept blinking her eyes to avoid crying. We talked to other officers who wouldn't look us in the eyes, but their faces showed no signs of pleasure. After I calmed down a bit and got my emotions under control enough to speak, I said to them, "You probably think we're just fanatics with nothing better to do, or maybe vagrants who are too lazy to be working right now, or maybe spoiled college kids who don't have to work. You can think that we're idiots who came across a few statistics on environmental degredation or sweatshops, that we're out here today to be self-righteous and think that we're better than everybody else, but we're people just like you. And everybody standing here with me knows exactly why they're here today. We're trying to make the world better. And I don't think a single one of you even knows why you're here. How many of you support the WTO? How many of you even know what it does? We know why we're here. Why the hell are you here? I don't think any of you became police officers to beat people who aren't a threat to anyone's safety. Just who do you think you're protecting? We're unarmed. None of us have tried to attack you or anyone else today. You attacked us. You aren't protecting yourselves; there's no one behind you that you're protecting -- who do you think you're protecting!? If you have a good reason for beating us today, if you felt it was right, that's one thing. But if you didn't have any reason and you still beat these people anyway, I want you to ask yourself why you did it. Why you were willing to inflict violence on other people for no reason other than you were told to." I asked them to go home and think about that; what they did to make things better today by beating non-violent protesters; if that's what they became cops to do. They were all silent, turning they heads constantly to avoid eye contact with any of the protesters speaking. The commanding officer walked down a line in between the police and us, pushing protesters back. He ordered the crowd to disperse, saying that if we didn't leave they would remove us by force. We didn't leave. We just kept talking to the police more. I asked the commanding officer to explain to us why we ought to leave. He didn't acknowledge the question. I asked them all if that's what those clubs meant, that they didn't have to explain their actions to anyone, even themselves. Other protesters reminded them that even though they were trained to be robots, they were still people who were responsible for their own actions -- orders or no orders. I told them my name, where I was from, that I go to college, that I have family and friends. I asked them their names. None answered. We stayed there and the police didn't charge. Not because I think we convinced them not to, but because there were too many of us. Soon a group of people arrived with their arms chained together inside tubes wrapped in duct tape. 4 of these people were from Athens; 3 OU students and friends of mine. The police were still threatening to charge the crowd. I quickly realized that these people had no way to protect their heads from the police clubs. Being obviously violent had already proven to be no defense against police violence. Another OU student and I walked up to the police line to ask them about this. The line was now made up of different police officers. We approached one and asked him about this. He looked at us and said, "Well, if they're worried about getting hurt, they should have thought about that before they came out today." I asked him to show me his badge number. He refused. "Aren't you required to show your identification to the public?" He didn't answer. The officer to his left sneered at me and said, "Well you have all the answers, why don't you tell me?" Before I could, he raised his club and yelled at me to back up. I did and continued talking to him, but he looked away and ignored me. The first officer had no identifying number anywhere on him. No visible badge, no number on his helmet. I took his picture and got others to. Telling everybody that we needed to watch him. When I first spoke to police after they had beaten us, I was very encouraged that some had actually shown some signs of human compassion, but my hopefullness dissappeared after I talked to the latter group of officers and realized that many of them were quite happy to inflict harm on people. Reinforcements came and as protesters cleared the way for them, one cop pushed a protester, and said "Get the fuck out of my way," with a smile on his face. From time to time ambulances would come through and the crowd would clear a path immediately. Some protesters said, "What if WTO delegates are sneaking in on the ambulances?" But people came to an immediate consensus that, although that was a possiblity, it wasn't worth risking people's safety. Suddenly, a WTO delegate made it unnoticed through our lines. But when he made it to police they refused to let him enter. They turned back another delegate later. As it turned out, we were guarding an exit, not an entrance; that the police's orders were to not let anyone in -- whoever they were. Also, since police had shut down the street and no protesters had attempted to cross police lines, none of us were even doing anything illegal. -- which is probably why none of the people in the sit-down group were arrested. Though none of us were arrested, all of us were beaten and sprayed. Word soon made it to us that the situation was worse elsewhere. We made our way to the heart of downtown and found the streets full of tear gas. There was a large group of people sitting down in front of police in full riot gear with their gas masks on. Behind them was an armored tank. The police attacked protesters again. Against non-violent protesters, they used pepper spray, clubs, tear gas, and later fired rubber bullets and marbles at the people. In every single instance I witnessed first hand, police violently attacked non-violent protesters with no provocation whatsoever. That was the case when I was beaten and sprayed, that was the case when downtown was flooded with gas, with helicopters flying overhead shining spotlights down into the crowd. Thousands of police forced protesters out of the downtown area, firing cannister after cannister of tear gas into the crowd. My friends and I were split up in the crowd of people fleeing from the gas. Eventually, I made it back to the house to join them. The whole way to their house, I was hoping that this story would get out. Hoping that the level of violence inflicted on non-violent protesters, peacefully assembled, would wake a lot of people up and show them the level of democracy in this country. Hoping that people would see what the level of force aimed at people who peacefully oppose the interests that are dominant in this country and the world. I returned home to have this hope crushed. The local news stations were reporting on the broken windows of businesses and not the broken bones of protesters. They reported on things like police fatigue, which I assume is when your arms get tired after you beat people for hours. They talked -and continue to talk about- the extreme restraint, open-mindedness, and gentleness displayed by police. A state of civil emergency was declared and a curfew was set for 7pm. If anyone was downtown after that, they would be arrested. Police cleared the curfew zone of people, but we watched them on TV continuing to pursue them up Capitol Hill -- blocks past the curfew zone. The police chased them into a business area and fired tear gas into crowds that were now made up of shoppers and people getting dinner as well as protesters. Finally, after 12 hours of people being beaten and gassed, a small riot broke out. A Starbucks coffee store was damaged and looted. I'm amazed it took this long to happen, and I say this in all honesty from being here first hand, that, by repeatedly attacking and torturing non-violent protesters, the Seattle police sought to incite a riot and finally succeeded to a small degree. The news kept running the scene of Starbucks being looted again, and again, and again, at least a dozen times in under an hour. There were also quick clips of police beating demonstrators shown once and not again. A newscaster on KOMO, channel 4, said, "Look; earlier today we saw protesters carrying signs with clear messages against the WTO, but what you have going on now is an unruly mob just trying to cause problems. In the pictures we're seeing now, I don't see any signs at all. These people don't have any message." What the newscaster failed to notice was that people, myself included, dropped their signs when they were fleeing for their lives. They were dropped because you need two hands to guard your eyes from tear gas and your head from clubs. Talk of the police being too lenient has continued into today's news reports. And the lack of signs continues to be portrayed as a lack of any constuctive purpose among the protesters. One newscaster said, "Come on, get a life. We live in a prosperous country." In all honesty, the news is scaring me more than the riot police, because what it has done is justify further violence against the protesters. They have said that police have been too lenient. The police have used tear gas, pepper spray, clubs, rubber bullets, and marbles against peaceful civilians in downtown Seattle. The only thing they haven't done is used live ammunition. And in the event that greater violence occurs against protesters, the media will have justified it. Besides insulting protesters, the local media has focused on the disruption to traffic and holiday shopping. The National Guard is now occupying the city, a 50 block no-protest zone has been established, about 120 people have been arrested, and many have been hospitalized -- though that has recieved no coverage as far as I've seen. In other news, we succeeded in shutting down the first day of WTO meetings. The situation is still developing, so I encourage everyone to watch the news coverage and contrast it to what I've written here. AND PLEASE, do your own research on the WTO.

WTO Protesters Refuse To Give Names

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS

.c The Associated Press

SEATTLE (Dec. 2, 99) - Continuing their protest, many of the demonstrators arrested this week at the World Trade Organization conference have refused to divulge their names to law officers.

That has left many of them sitting in crowded cells at the King County Jail without legal counsel because they have yet to be officially booked.

King County Superior Court Judge Michael Spearman issued an emergency order Thursday requiring authorities to give defense attorneys access to protesters, except for those who are ''physically uncooperative'' with the booking process.

''Access to counsel is not contingent on answering police questions, including 'What is your name,''' Spearman said in his handwritten order.

A 26-year-old protester, identifying herself only as Shirley, described conditions in the jail during a telephone interview with the Associated Press.

''It's dirty and the garbage is overflowing,'' she said, adding that some of the people still had pepper spray on their clothes, which is causing breathing problems.

''There's an asthmatic person who has just thrown up and is being denied asthma medication because she will not give her name,'' said Shirley, who was arrested outside the Westlake Center in downtown Seattle on Wednesday morning.

She said she and other demonstrators held on buses for 14 hours, without access to their lawyers, before they were taken to the jail. About 25 women were inside a cell she estimated at 11 feet by 14 feet.

''We haven't slept in 32 hours,'' she said

She said prisoners in her cell were practicing ''jail solidarity'' by not giving their names to law officers. ''Right now we're calling ourselves Jane W-T-O's,'' she said.

Bob Boruchowitz of the Defender Association, which sought access to potential clients, said his attorneys still had not spoken with clients by late Thursday afternoon, and that two attorneys for a time couldn't get out of the Seattle jail building.

Meanwhile, lawyers for Direct Action Network, an umbrella group for a number of protest groups, were negotiating with Seattle Mayor Paul Schell, to try to get the nonviolent protesters released.

AP-NY-12-02-99 2132EDT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WTO Protests Calm Down

By LUIS CABRERA

.c The Associated Press

SEATTLE (Dec. 2, 99) - Billed as a ''festival of resistance,'' World Trade Organization protests Thursday for the first time seemed more like a party than a pitched battle with police.

After a Pike Place Market rally, at least 1,000 people marched to the King County Jail at the south end of downtown to express support for those arrested this week. Motorcycle police escorted protesters to the site, which is blocks away from the WTO meetings. A huge puppet on wheels, with a gag across his mouth, also led the throng.

''We're here because there are over 100 non-violent protesters (inside) who were arrested for exercising their right to free speech,'' said one man on a bullhorn. Most of those arrested are being held elsewhere. ''The guards are telling them they have no support.''

''Free the Seattle 500,'' read one sign.

''Let them go!'' chanted the crowd. People inside the jail waved to the cheering protesters.

Police were acting differently, said David Roman, 26, an organizer with the umbrella group Direct Action Network. Where Wednesday some were ''out of control,'' they were cooperative Thursday, he said.

The rally at the market was one of the first peaceful demonstrations since Tuesday's vandalism downtown and police response Wednesday with tear gas and rubber bullets.

''These people are standing up for a good cause,'' said market spokeswoman Sylvia McDaniel of the 2,000 or so who gathered peacefully in noon sunshine.

Activists were wary of renewed police efforts to distinguish between vandals and criminals and those engaged in peaceful protest and civil disobedience.

''It's never too late to say you're sorry,'' said Lori Lofton, 25, of Portland, Ore., walking with about 300 other demonstrators as the market crowd dispersed into smaller groups.

But then she added of police: ''Many of them should be punished. An apology is not enough.''

For activists concerned about WTO power to override national laws protecting the environment and workers, this week's meeting was supposed to be a historic showdown between civil society and the forces of corporate globalization.

Instead, the battle has been between protesters and police, with concerns about human rights, labor and the environment taking a back seat to allegations of police brutality.

More than 570 people have been arrested since Tuesday, when tens of thousands of protesters took over the city's core and some smashed entire blocks of storefront windows, spray-painted buildings and slashed police-car tires causing an estimated $2 million in property damage.

Mayor Paul Schell has imposed a 24-hour ''limited curfew'' through midnight Friday around the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, where trade delegates, media and interest groups from 135 nations are meeting. People in the area can be asked for identification and ordered to leave if authorities decide they don't have a valid reason for being there.

Activists made clear they did not condone Tuesday's violence and vandalism, which they said involved a very small percentage of the estimated 40,000 people demonstrating. Groups of people wearing black ski masks were witnessed smashing windows and kicking dents in squad-car doors.

But since then, they say, police have tear-gassed and arrested scores of people participating in non-violent marches and demonstrations.

Police spokeswoman Carmen Best said officers warned protesters before using gas or pepper spray, and contended they have acted appropriately.

''People cannot block the streets,'' she said. ''It's illegal to do so. For people to block a main thoroughfare in a busy area of the city is not appropriate.''

She said the department ''recognizes the fact that people want to exercise their rights to free speech, and we embrace that. However, if it's a violation of law, then we have been mandated to enforce the law.''

AP-NY-12-02-99 1830EDT

From: APFN <APFN@lv.rmci.net> ???????? Subject: All is not as it seems! A letter from Seattle This is a fax (another one) that I sent to the Mayor of Seattle. Top 10 Reasons to Oppose the World Trade Organization Via APFNetwork apfn@lv.rmci.net http://www.insidetheweb.com/mbs.cgi/mb77532 Subject: Fwd: Fw: a letter from Seattle Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1999 10:31:10 PST From: "cliff kadmon" <ckadmon@hotmail.com To Whom It May Concern: I am a young man living in the Seattle area. I am not going to reveal my name, for reasons that will be obvious. Several weeks ago I was approached by the representative of a major company. I was offered a lucrative, temporary job as a demonstrator as part of a 'media event' that the company rep said she was involved in planning. I was offered $35 an hour, plus bonuses and meals, for a job that would last a week or so. Being a rather poor college student, I jumped at the offer. I was assured it was all legal. I signed a strict non-disclosure agreement. And I was given a few days paid training. All of this was before I had heard about the upcoming World Trade Organization meeting. In fact, I didn't really know what the WTO was. In the past few days I have carried protest signs and chanted slogans for various causes - whales, farmers, human rights, rainforests; I have blocked traffic, been shoved, kicked, tear-gassed, arrested (bail promptly paid), worn a panda bear costume, and been on tv; I've been well-fed on steaks and shrimp and pizza; had a hell of a lot of fun; made some good cash money and recieved some merchandise bonuses like vitamins and Pepsi stuff; - and become totally disillusioned with our political system. The company that hired me is Archer Daniels Midland, but Pepsi was somehow involved, too (and no doubt some others). The demonstrations this past week in Seattle are contrived and manufactured. I'm sure that many of the people out there are sincerely trying to further their cause, but many more are just nuts getting caught up in the moment, and some are paid agitators (like me and about another 100 or so that I know of). I'm not out there anymore, though, I took my cash last night and left, went back to school. Here's the thing: Have you noticed how the aims of many of the protestors for the most part actually go along with the aims of the WTO and the multi-national corporations? The 'event' is being portrayed as a demonstration against capitalism, but actually is about stricter environment and labor controls, and stricter international standards in many areas. This is the agenda of the WTO and the New World Order. It is all part of the one-world government thing. It is all about more CONTROL over people. When I saw this, I walked away. All of this should be obvious to thoughtful people, but the media are drooling all over each other covering this story as if it were some kind of spontaneous happening, instead of the staged drama it really is. People think the New World Order is just something some crazy person on the internet thought up, but I first heard it from the mouth of President George Bush years ago. The New World Order is alive and growing. I just wanted to put the word out on this to counter the prevailing spin. All is not as it seems! Just Some Guy - a NWO shill ==================================================================== From: Les Lemke <leslemke@earthlink.net This is a fax (another one) that I sent to the Mayor of Seattle. This letter is going to as many Congressman as I can send it to. What happened and CONTINUES TO HAPPEN in Seattle is totally UNacceptable. If you saw what I saw and wish to alter this letter and send it as your own letter to that scumbag in Seattle, or to your own Congressmen, go for it. What I say below I did in fact see via various media sources. This is nothing but NAZI GESTAPO ACTION AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY! ---------------------------- December 2, 1999 Lester Lemke P.O. Box 1524 Coos Bay, Oregon 97420-0332 Mayor Paul Schell of